


Monsters

by sweetcarolanne



Category: Original Work
Genre: Adopted Children, Bigfoot - Freeform, Bonding, Cathartic Moments, Extra Treat, F/F, F/M, Family, Gen, Group Marriage, Monsters, Nature, Sasquatch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-02 22:36:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21168989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetcarolanne/pseuds/sweetcarolanne
Summary: To some humans, Sky and her clan were monsters. To the boy nicknamed Grub, they were  the only family he had ever known.





	Monsters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ilthit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilthit/gifts).

> I hope you enjoy this treat and it is along the lines of what you wanted, for I was very inspired by your prompts! <3
> 
> Many thanks to my anonymous beta.

Sky knew that it was no use to try to calm her youngest son down. He had to get the rage he felt out of his system before he could be reasoned with. She stood aside from him, her eyes filled with concern and a tender patience that only a six-time mother could have, and waited while he hurled sticks and rocks at the trees around him and wrenched handfuls of grass from the ground and threw them into the air. His tiny hands were balled into fists, and when he wasn’t throwing things, he pounded them on the sturdy trunks of nearby trees and scraped his knuckles on the roughness of their bark.

His shrill, outraged screams echoed through the forest, making the eerie silence that fell across the woodlands when Sky’s family were out and about even more startling by contrast. Hot tears flowed down his pale cheeks, and his breathing was hard and ragged. The matriarch’s heart ached for her adopted son, this human child she had rescued as an infant, for he was more vulnerable than his brothers and sisters, and far more volatile in his emotions. The other children sometimes threw temper tantrums – even son Flint and daughter Flower who were strapping adolescents – but their bursts of fury were much less intense and usually ended as swiftly as they had begun.

With a worried expression on her face, Sky’s young daughter Brook peeked out from behind a tall pine tree. She was the closest in age to her terrified, infuriated brother, and his favorite companion. Sky saw her daughter leaning out and shook her head, indicating that the child should remain where she was. Sky needed to handle the current situation one on one for the meantime, and Brook could console her brother later when everything was calmer. 

It was fortunate that Sky was the only one of the adults around right then, as she knew best how to deal with incidents like these. Her two beloved mates, Lightning and Rainbow, were also good and loving parents but they sometimes found the human foundling’s sudden outbursts alarming. At that time, Lightning had taken the three oldest children, Flint, Flower and Midnight, with him to patrol the territory, making sure that the furless beings that had caused all the uproar had left the area. Rainbow was back at the family’s cave, preoccupied with daughter Moon who she had recently given birth to.

At last, the wild flinging of objects ceased, and the screeches died away to sobs. Sky swooped forward and caught her little son before he collapsed, cradling him in her massive furry arms and rocking him against her chest, making soft cooing sounds in his ear.

“Everything will be all right, my little Grub,” she whispered. “The strangers are long gone, and they can’t harm you. You’re safe with me, safe here in the woods with your family. We will always protect you.”

The boy looked up, a petulant pout on his tear-stained face at the sound of his babyhood nickname.

“My name’s not Grub, Mama Sky! It’s Cloud. I’m not a baby anymore.”

Sky wrinkled her nose at Grub in gentle reproof, and smoothed his hair with long, thick fingers. 

“You will always be my little Grub, and you will always be my baby, even if you grow to be eight feet tall like your father and your brother Flint. All of you children will always be my babies, and your Papa’s babies, and your Mama Rainbow’s babies.”

A note of sorrow almost crept into her voice, for humans seldom grew to be eight feet tall. And Grub would need the Bigfoot clan to protect him for the rest of his life, for a human alone would struggle to survive in the forest.

Grub’s small hands gripped onto Sky’s lush black fur, seeking comfort in its warmth as he snuggled closer, sniffling.

“I saw them, Mama, the monsters. They had bang-sticks, and they were ugly and scary! They’re like the ones who hurt me when I was only little. I hate them, and I don’t want them to come back!”

Sky rocked Grub against her, humming in soothing tones but frowning slightly. She did not want her child to grow up despising himself, because although he was accepted as a Bigfoot, he had been born among the furless ones.

“Not all of them are bad, my son. And they are not monsters, just a different kind of people. We don’t like the ones who come with bang-sticks because they take our food, but I have seen some of the furless ones come to the woods to look around, to marvel at the beauty that is here as we do.”

Grub looked up at his adoptive mother, eyes growing wide.

“Really, Mama – they can be gentle too?”

Sky gave a nod and nuzzled Grub, who giggled, already beginning to forget his terror, rage and tears.

“Yes, they can,” Sky told him. “One day, when you’re bigger, I will take you to the places where the furless ones walk along trails and watch the birds and tiny animals, listening to the wind in the trees and being touched by the bright beams of the sun.”

She placed Grub down upon the ground, and extended her hand for him to hold.

“But in the meantime, we can make sure that the nasty bang-stick men are truly gone. We’ll go back to the cave where Mama Rainbow and baby Moon are, and check around that area to see if there are any tracks. We will have to be brave and protect Mama Rainbow and baby Moon if the men are there!”

Sky knew that the human hunters had been heading in the opposite direction, but she wanted to give her fragile little son a chance to feel courageous.

Grub nodded solemnly; a light of determination now flashed in his green eyes as he slipped his hand into Sky’s.

“All right, Mama. We’ll do that! Let’s find Brook so she can help us!”


End file.
